July 2022 Grocery Challenge

ragz_2

First spend today on MrA delivery. Don't know the total yet as there were 10 substitutions and a few things missing completely, the subs will all be going back. 
To be fair, I placed the order at 11:30am this morning and it's coming in the next few hours so bound to be some stock issues.
Even the higher than usual delivery price (£4.50) is less expensive than the fuel cost to get to my nearest big supermarket (over 30 mile round trip, 23p a mile so at least £7).

Frugal win of the day - DH and I harvested all the blackcurrants from the single bush we have (DS1 who is nearly 16 planted it when he was about 7!). First time we've ever managed this we usually mean to and never get around to it. I don't like them raw, but we're making jam tomorrow. Almost 1.6kg picked which will make 6 to 8 jars I think. Depends on jar size... and how many jars DD is willing to relinquish as she collects/hoards them. Have promised she can have them back when we've eaten the jam!

Used 4 very black bananas to make a banana and chocolate loaf which did afternoon snack and pudding. Also baked a loaf of bread as the oven was on. Dinner was homemade burgers (treated myself to a burger press a few months ago!) which were delicious and cost me around £3.60 for 8 1/4 pounders. 

nannygladys

Went to the community pantry and spent £7, so that's the monthly stock cupboard filled up at again. Not sure when I'm shopping again as I'm eating veggies off the allotment and seem to have quite a but in at the moment, so going to eat some of that up before I buy anymore.

Signature updated.
Nannyg

Greying - it does worry me somewhat where the money is going to be squeezed from, there's only so much you can do before it becomes impossible and what happens then? But I'm hoping with the allotment and stores I have in I'll be able to manage through winter, not sure after that.

Jen_x

£75.30/£250

£63.75 spent in MrL this morning. 8 loaves of bead into the freezer and 24 youghurts with long dates mean I hopefully won't need to shop again for a couple of weeks. Quiche and salad for tea with homegrown cucumbers lettuce and tomatoes. I got a big gammon joint which I'll cook for tea tomorrow with homegrown new pots and peas. I'll make carbonara on Monday with some of the leftovers and the rest of the joint will make sandwiches for lunches.

Jen x

leftatthetrafficlights

My condolences @otb666 😔 

Few grocery spends this week- mainly on food and laundry stuff - I'll update totals tomorrow 

Kinglemum

I’m aiming for £350 again this month. Life got in the way last month and I didn’t end up updating after my first post but am determined to try harder this month! I lost track a little bit but was only just over so hopefully this time around I’ll make it! 

Caroby

Another vote to keep the average spend info for same reasons given above.
Yesterday was our first main shop of the month. The main supermarkets here are half an hour's drive away at a seaside town so cost to get to, but we see it as a trip out, taking a morning walk on the beach followed by packed lunch and flask of coffee in the car (very rarely eat out anywhere) before shopping. There are a few shops 10 minutes walk away from home but limited choices and too expensive for us.
First shop on the return journey was Lidl, £37.71 spent inc 2.5kg Nectar potatoes for 99p which are lovely for mash or baking, and frozen green beans 1kg for 59p. Granny Smith apples were down to 89p for six and red lentils 500g 99p.
Next shop Aldi, £23.77 spent inc 1.5kg 'wonky' (but straight, good quality) carrots 49p and 3 jars of Alcafe decaf coffee £1.29 for 100g. Opposite Aldi is Morrison's, £10.79 spent inc 3 courgettes 99p, their spicy bean burgers 4 for £1.75 and as a treat for dinner later, a Chicago Town vegan pizza for £3.50 which we had with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower.
Last shop visited was Tesco, we dropped off food packaging into their recycle thing then spent £10.51 inc Stockwell sweeteners 850 for 98p, Stockwell vegan soft spread 85p each (love Vitalite but too dear now at £1.70+), 2 loose red onions 26p (cheaper loose than in net packs), and £2.38 on items for the food bank.
Total spent £82.78.
This will last us till around the 15th but will buy some more fresh fruit and veg before then when we pass a supermarket on another trip out.
No alcohol bought this time, got a bottle of Hobgoblin last time which we'll share one night and might buy a bottle of wine next shop if budget allows. We've cut right back on drink and sweets (still buy Lidl dark chocolate bars with no dairy ingredients) but the money saved there seems to be going on price rises everywhere else, all those 10p or more increases add up.
So our freezer is fairly well stocked but already I'm putting a few scrunched-up bread bags in it to fill the gaps so it runs more economically, in theory anyway. By the 15th there'll be a lot more plastic bags/packaging in there than food ... I keep them in a drawer in the fridge ready to move over.

wishus

First spend of the month Al di £27.50.

Bought fresh parsley and lemons which I wouldn't normally, but glad I did. They made the difference in my prawn pasta dish.

diminua

Biggest extravagance - £16 on Pimms and lemonade - I'm having some really good evenings out and have no regrets, but I do need to keep track of these drinks as I'm on a very average (actually it's less than average) wage. 

Groceries today were: muesli base (health food shop, basically a mix of different grains I add raisins and nuts to for texture and sweetness) tomatoes, apricots, strawberries, pointed red peppers and single cream. £12.48 in total. Plus yesterday I bought bread and milk at £1.80. 

£162.32 left. 

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning GC'rs,

Can I go against the flow, and say could the expenditure post maybe be kept, but with some sort of caveat added, as to the date we 'think' the data pertains to (iirc it was something like March 2020, but it wasn't clear whether that was the date point of data collection, or publication, any which way, it's 2 years ago........).  I will freely admit, when I first looked at the figure for a household of 3, I thought, "oh, we're ok".  But then we're an atypical household anyway - the biggie for us is no takeaways (because they are dreadful around Greying Town), and we rarely if ever eat out (a hangover from not finding places with good veggie food/having a picky toddler/young child who may leave more than they eat.....).  I just fear that food prices are rising so much, that the data is (unfortunately), having less and less connection with reality.  You can shop the discounters, shop generic, cut down on meat, cut out t/aways, and it still can cost alot of money to live....... I worry that I'm "missing" a trick, hack or just 'doing it wrong'.  I would hate to think of even one other person thinking like that.  The data is a snapshot of average expenditure at a specific moment in time, and we've had such extraordinary times since.......... Just my two 'penneth - as ever, feel free to ignore.

£4.35 spent yesterday in a nearby market town.  Managed to get 2 x 6 FR eggs for £2 in Bee&M, and got some 'meatless' style burgers from H3r0n for £1.50 to try. Also got a bag of 6 mini packets of choc chip cookies for LG as they had been introduced to them by a school chum 🙄  The only good thing about that is that there are only 99 calories in each little bag, LG dutifully doled out a bag each for us on our return home and there were only 6 bags in the packet to start with........  And actually, to be fair to LG they 'savoured' each biscuit, so although I won't be letting them make it a habit, it could have been alot worse.  

Tea last night was pea & broad bean risotto.  I made stock using frozen asparagus tips.  The peas were from the food waste diversion scheme - the pods were perfect, but there were few if any peas inside 🙁The broad beans were frozen.  I used a leek (previous MrL box) and a red onion (ditto), and some celery for the base.  I made it in the PC, and the only thing that would have helped was a shaving or two of Grana Padano/parmesan, but I've none at the mo.  The risotto was still tasty.  I have decided to keep the pea pods and have a go at making pea pod soup for lunch today.  It could all go horribly wrong..........🤣

£48.61 spent out of £200.  Hoping for a NSD today.

Greying X

PipneyJane

otb666 said:

245/600 bought a dominoes as been a tough week MIL passed away with covid

@otb666 I am so sorry to read your news.  My condolences to you and all your family.  I hope she didn’t suffer for long.

Big hugs,

Pip